Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resin sheet attaching method of attaching a resin sheet to the front side or back side of a wafer.
Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device fabrication process, a plurality of crossing division lines are formed on the front side of a substantially disk-shaped semiconductor wafer to thereby partition a plurality of regions where a plurality of devices such as ICs and LSIs are respectively formed. The back side of the semiconductor wafer is ground by a grinding apparatus to reduce the thickness of the semiconductor wafer to a predetermined thickness. Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer is divided along the division lines by a cutting apparatus or a laser processing apparatus to thereby obtain the individual devices divided from each other.
The grinding apparatus for grinding the back side of a wafer such as a semiconductor wafer includes a chuck table having a holding surface for holding the wafer under suction, grinding means having a grinding wheel with abrasive members for grinding the wafer held on the holding surface of the chuck table, the grinding wheel being mounted on a rotating spindle, and feeding means for feeding the grinding means in a direction perpendicular to the holding surface of the chuck table. In operation, the front side of the wafer is held on the holding surface of the chuck table under suction, and the abrasive members of the grinding wheel is brought into contact with the back side of the wafer and fed by the feeding means, thereby grinding the back side of the wafer. In grinding the back side of the wafer, a protective tape is attached to the front side of the wafer, so as to protect the devices formed on the front side of the wafer (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2009-107084, for example).
The cutting apparatus for dividing a wafer such as a semiconductor wafer into the individual devices along the division lines includes a chuck table having a holding surface for holding the wafer under suction, cutting means having a rotatable cutting blade for cutting the wafer held on the holding surface of the chuck table, and feeding means for relatively moving the chuck table and the cutting means in a feeding direction. In operation, the back side of the wafer is held on the holding surface of the chuck table under suction, and the cutting blade is positioned directly above each division line and fed to cut into the wafer. Thereafter, the chuck table and the cutting means are relatively moved in the feeding direction to thereby cut the wafer along each division line. Thus, the wafer is divided into the individual devices. In dividing the wafer, a dicing tape is attached to the back side of the wafer, so as to prevent scattering of the individual devices, and the dicing tape is supported at its peripheral portion to an annular frame (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-166969, for example).